News Fri 21/12 – Taratahi Liquidation.

21 Dec News Fri 21/12 – Taratahi Liquidation.

Taratahi Liquidation Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre was placed into liquidation on Wednesday, which was announced by liquidator Grant Thornton yesterday. The cause was said to be an unsustainable operating model. It had also been selling assets to pay off a $7.5m debt to TEC after under-delivery/rorts (see our 2015 report) Taratahi is the largest primary-sector provider in the country and is registered as a PTE, even though it is a public organisation, covered by its own act. Both the Ministers of Agriculture and Education have oversight roles (even if they tended to downplay that yesterday!). Taratahi recently took on the role of delivery at the Telford Farm, the other long-term primary sector provider.

Our View on Taratahi There will be more to come on the liquidation, as Ministers will have had considerable advice and considered options. The key farms involved are also long-term public assets, so solutions will probably involve them. As the year ends, the whole episode is a reminder of how fragile many vocational education providers are, and the choices facing Ministers about which ones they choose to bail out (they bailed out a good few ITPs this year).

Brash Ban Stuff reported that Massey Uni VC Jan Thomas was cleared of wrongdoing over the Brash speech cancellation by a commissioned report.